A dramatic miniseries hailing from one of the small screen’s most respected creators and executive producers set in the world of real estate doesn’t come across as one with the potential to shock viewers, but Netflix‘s A Man in Full has nonetheless conspired to leave jaws on the floor.
Hailing from David E. Kelly – the prolific producer behind such popular shows as Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, Goliath, Big Little Lies, Big Sky, The Lincoln Lawyer, and many more – A Man in Full stars Jeff Daniels as real estate mogul Charlie Croker. In the series, he attempts to rebuild his crumbling empire in the face of personal, professional, political, and financial pressures.
Academy Award-winning actor and filmmaker Regina King splits directorial duties with The West Wing veteran Thomas Schlamme, while the supporting cast includes Diane Lane, Tom Pelphrey, William Jackson Harper, and Lucy Liu. So far so prestigious, then, but one scene in particular has left subscribers around the world every bit as taken aback as they are horrified.
In the sixth and final episode, Daniels’ Croker walks in on Lane’s ex-wife Martha having sex with Pelphrey’s Raymond Peepgrass, where A Man in Full proceeds to break one of television’s major taboos by showing the latter’s fully erect penis. Suffice to say, it wasn’t quite what viewers were expecting, with many being left aghast at Netflix displaying a full-blown boner.
MP Sara Britcliffe questioned the function of the watershed for 24-hour streaming content, saying that because they’re “available at any time of day, watershed protection doesn’t apply.” The BBFC approved A Man in Full and awarded it a 15 rating in the United Kingdom, so the ratings and censorship board would have been fully aware of Pelphrey’s throbbing appendage long before it premiered.
However, audiences weren’t in the same boat, and the last thing any of them were expecting to see on Netflix was a rock-hard member. On the plus side, Pelphrey confirmed to Variety that it wasn’t actually his manhood, with the prosthetics team drafted in to try and preserve at least a modicum of his modesty.
“God bless the guy who does those prosthetics!” he said. “You want to be free, you want to have fun, you don’t want anybody else to be offended or weirded out.” That didn’t quite go to plan, though, with Netflix users both offended and weirded out by A Man in Full failing to come with an accompanying boner warning.
